Everybody Wins
by aroseofmanyleaves
Summary: Emma/Tancred. Emma doesn't believe she will ever be good enough for Tancred. Tancred believes Emma would never fall for his wild and stormy personality. K plus just in case. Completed.
1. Friendships and English Asignments

It was raining again. Probably Tancred getting upset again, Emma thought as she lay facing up through her window at the sky. D_amn! _For God's sake, why couldn't she stop thinking about him again? For the past three days, all that had entered her mind was 'Tancred this' and 'Tancred that'. It was driving her up the wall insane! Emma had told herself a million times that she wasn't good enough for him, and he would never _ever _like her as more than a friend. But Emma liked him so much more than as a friend, and that was the problem. She had shed tears over it and tried to protest against it, but she knew that her fears were true and that's were dreams could not happen.

Tancred slammed the wooden door behind him, making the doorknob fall out of its socket, and causing a small photo frame to fall off his bedside cabinet. He stormed over to it, thunder and lightning building up outside. It wasn't pretty when the weather monger and his son argued. Tancred leant down and picked up the picture frame. The glass was now shattered into a million tiny pieces and, being reckless as he normally was, he cut his index finger on a particularly sharp jagged piece. The photo was what, however, interested him the most. It was a picture of him and Emma, hugging. The photo itself had been taken by none other than Lysander Sage, Tancred's best mate in the entire world. Tancred grinned to himself, and his heart sort of shifted a bit, as though embarrassed. The thunder and lightning outside had now sort-of subsided and only one of the Torsson's trees had been blown over. He had always thought of Emma as being special to him, but recently he had come to realise that she meant so much more to him than that. He really liked her. But, and then his slight happiness shifted again and returned to thorough depression, she would never return his feelings. Feeling rather upset, he kicked his bedside cabinet, cracking open the small door and a pile of magazines came pouring out. He jumped onto his bed and tried to sleep.

Early the next morning, Emma, Lysander and Tancred caught the buss right outside the Cathedral. The organ was blaring out, playing hymns in and out of tune. It was quite eerie as everywhere else was totally silent, and there were no people running out of their houses and telling the organist to 'shut it'.

Conversation was rather stiff that morning between Emma and Tancred. They both tripped over their words, blushed tomato red and when it was silent, Tancred nervously patted his electrified hair, and Emma glanced down and stared hard at the chewing gum coated floor. When the bus finally arrived, they all rushed on to attempt to avoid the damned vehicle leaving without them like last week. They rushed to their seats at the back and sat down quickly. Lysander looked and felt rather smug. He had deliberately sat next to the window so that Emma and Tancred were forced to sit next to each other. He laughed in his head and suppressed small urges to giggle when Emma and Tancred make awkward conversation. At one point, he even cheekily whispered into Tancred's ear

'I think Em may like you as well matey boy.' He instantly regretted this when he was elbowed rather hard in the ribs by Tancred. When they finally got to the academy, Lysander and Tancred's little fight had subsided [after several swear words and an awful lot of rain over Lysander's head]. As usual, the green bus was last to get to Bloor's. Emma dawdled in front of the huge iron gates and felt rather reproachful as she had to glance up and see sharp little spikes on top, designed to stop any student from escaping, it made it look and sound like a prison.

'TOLLY! Come on, we haven't all day!' came the shrill shriek of Manfred Bloor, head boy. Emma scurried inside, only to find herself in the company of Olivia Vertigo, her best friend. She looked rather harassed

'Manfred's been hanging around, and when he saw me he was like 'what are you doing?' and then I was like 'I'm waiting for Emma' and then he was like again 'is that so?' so I go 'yep!' she gushed out in her soft lilting voice, 'and then I saw Tancred…' she joked, wolf whistling loudly. It wasn't until Emma started glaring at her, that she finally stopped.

'Come on Liv, we need to get to assembly, or Dr Bloor will have us!' Olivia agreed and together, one with fluorescent green socks and giant six inches black high heels, and one with a pencil behind her ear, they made their way across the playground to the entrance hall.

After one English lesson sat next to Tancred, Emma Tolly was about ready to do herself in, as it were. Their work was to write a paragraph about the person in the world that they most admired. Emma, after long consideration and a long list of people, had chosen Tancred. She tried hard to keep her work hidden from him, as he normally liked to look over at what she was writing, but in the end, she needn't had bothered, for her English teacher, Mr Carp, made her read it aloud anyway. Emma tried to protest, but it didn't work in the slightest. Standing up, shaking magnificently at the knees and blushing tomato red, Emma began,

'The person in the world I most admire is one of my best friends, Tancred Torsson. He is rather brave and courageous and he has a really enchanting endowment. He can be a little prone to having tempers, but he is an incredible friend to me and he is one of the best people you could ever possibly imagine. He always looks out for me and he always talks to me and looks out for me when I'm feeling a bit down. If he ever were to leave me,' Emma hesitated here, not particularly wanting to go on. Mr Carp stood near her and frowned at her until she mumbled the last sentence 'I think my heart would break.'

'Hey Emma, wait up!' Tancred yelled down the corridor. Emma flushed as he bounded up towards her. She paused for a moment and turned around to face him.

'You know that thing you write about me in English? It was really nice, was it true?' Emma hesitated. If he found out that it was, well, she didn't even want to think what his reaction would be.

'Well, urm, yeah.' She told him. Tancred looked rather surprised and opened his mouth to speak, when Emma suddenly exclaimed

'Sorry, Tanc, got to go, got some errrrr homework. See you in art!' and with that, she sped off down the corridor , into the garden, leaving Tancred stood in the Art hallway, mouth open, very confused, and looking like a muppet.

After break, Emma trudged slowly along to art. She loved the subject, and her teacher, Mr Bovolda, but today she was less eager for the lesson. The reason? Tancred Torsson was in her art class. She liked him too much; it was getting out of hand.

Tancred hurried along to art. He really needed to speak to Emma before she got the idea in her head that he was angry with her. It wasn't however, the subject that he liked, he hated art, he was useless at it, but he loved to be in the same room as her. It gave him an adrenaline rush every time he looked at her, her beautiful blonde hair and her gorgeous sparkling eyes. Emma Torsson; hmm, fits pretty well.

Mr Bovolda walked into his lesson just as Emma and Tancred sat down.

'Okay then kids, today we will be having a new seating plan because the majority of you talk way too much!' he laughed 'We're moving into alphabetical order everybody so just sit where I put you.'

'Adkins and Baxter over here.'

'Bull and Debruxelles here please.' The list went on until he reached the T section.

'Tolly and Torsson at the back please, and that's it kids.' Tancred looked at Emma as she delved into her bag and pulled out her pencil case and paintbrush tin. He flashed her an inside melting grin. Emma smiled nervously back at him. Her reaction to him later seemed to fade away in that instance. When she was finally seated properly and was ready, my Bovolda started to talk about their brand new project, but neither Emma nor Tancred was listening. They were just gazing at each other as if they were the only two people in the world. Slowly they started to move towards each other but at this point came a loud shout.

'Oi, you two!' Mr Bovolda said loudly across the classroom at them, 'this is a lesson, not a ….' he grinned at them. Emma and Tancred blushed and then hung their heads quite low, looking at each other from the corner of their eyes. Emma knew that they had shared a special moment, and that maybe, there was some hope for her that her dream could come true. And then, when Emma was least expecting it, Tancred kissed her. It was like heaven to her, all of her fantasies coming true at once. Tancred was silently praising himself. When they finally broke apart, the whole room was silent and every single person in it was staring at them. My Bovolda was stood at the front, chuckling to himself, but after a couple of seconds he said

'Everybody, you know what you're doing, start now.' And the class turned away. Mr Bovolda, still smiling slightly walked to the back of classroom,

'Okay kiddos, we're starting a new project, just a small one, will take up these two periods and then we're done. We're doing portraits of the people/things we love the most. So you two better buck up and do the work or I'll consider putting you in detention.'

'Oh and by the way Emma, your bird sketches got you an A+ for your assignment, well done.' Emma smiled broadly; Mr Bovolda knew full well why she was so good at drawing birds. Tancred took a long glance at Emma then took a sharp 2B pencil and began to draw. They did not say another word to each other for the whole two hours that they were sat next to each other. Emma's face was contorted with concentration whilst Tancred was looking rather frustrated. He knew he couldn't draw properly but he was drawing Emma and he didn't want a single ounce of her beauty to be misinterpreted. At the end of the double period, both however were finished. Tancred's was rather more cartoony but captured the defiant gleam in Emma's eyes. Emma had drawn [and painted] Tancred to a T. The electrified spiky blonde hair, the sparkly green eyes, and the handsome facial features had all been included.

'Woah Em. That's incredible!' Tancred exclaimed when he saw it. Mr Bovolda was currently walking around the room examining everyone's work. Lysander had done an incredible sketch of his girlfriend, Lauren, and he, like Emma, had done a perfect likeness. When Mr B reached the back table belonging to Emma and Tancred, everyone was staring yet again. They looked at each other and laughed rather loudly.

'Well done guys, nice work. And everybody, when you next see them, I want you to give your pictures to the people that you drew.' Emma and Tancred swapped pictures, but just before, Tancred wrote on the back of his portrait

My love from now and always.

Emma rolled it up carefully in her bag and made a mental note to stick it on her wall. She could not have been happier at this moment in time, everything was just how she wanted it to be, and she couldn't ask for anything more.

As they walked out of the class together, Tancred began to speak. But once again, Emma silenced him by placing her index finger on his lips.

'My turn.' She whispered. She stood up on her very tippy-toes and kissed him, the she pushed him away from her, smiled and skipped off down the corridor to lunch. Tancred grinned manically and thought to himself, one step closer to Emma Torsson. Not bad at all son, not bad at all.

Later that day, exactly ten minutes before homework started, Tancred entered the Red King's room with Lysander. Tancred was now, evidently, going out with Emma, and this was the first girl that he had ever been out with that he actually had any kind of emotion for apart from sheer annoyance from people like Tracy Morsell. And he had no clue whatsoever what to do. Whereas, Lysander had been in a happy, easy-going relationship for what, nine months now. How did he do it? Tancred had only ever had girlfriends lasting for no more than three days and all of them had been in it just to be more popular. He pondered about it for a while, until Charlie, Gabriel and Billy all walked in.

'Oh my God Tanc, did you really kiss Emma in the middle of art today?' Charlie enquired nosily. He was a very nosy boy with a very messy mop of brown hair and dark brown eyes, almost the same colour as a tree trunk. Tancred scowled at him and sent a small breeze in Charlie's direction, making his English book fly off the table and hit the shelf of books behind him. Lysander however, replied for him

'Yep, while Mr B was speaking as well!' Tancred scowled again, and sent a wave of fury towards Lysander, who just smirked with amusement.

'Tanc, nice one though,' Gabriel started, 'We all knew that you liked each other and I have to say, Emma's looking happier than I've ever seen her before!' he finished impressively. Billy re-adjusted his glasses, and was about to speak when Manfred and his possy, Dorcas, the twins Idith and Inez, and Joshua Tilpin, the magnet, walked into the room. Several minutes later, when everyone was working with their heads half buried in Maths or Language books, Emma appeared.

'Oh' she said, surprised, 'I didn't realise I was late, sorry.'

'Sit down and shut up Tolly' Manfred commanded in a strict _you don't want to cross me I'm in a really bad mood_ sort of voice. Tancred, provoked by this nasty vulgar little comment stood up and shouted at Manfred

'Oi, leave her alone!' Manfred smirked and Emma feared for the absolute worst. She stood, trying to draw attention to herself rather than to Tancred. This worked rather well.

'TOLLY! What did I just say? SIT DOWN THIS INSTANT!' Manfred screamed at her. Emma hurried to a seat. Being the kind and tactful person that he was, Gabriel had saved Emma a seat between him and Tancred. He beckoned to Emma and patted the seat that he had saved. Emma gave him a thankful and truly grateful smile and then smiled shyly at Tancred. He smiled back at her and continued to look at her, even after her gaze had dropped to her math homework. He smiled broadly until Manfred spoke for the third time,

'Torsson, Tolly, stop flirting and get on with your work! You're disturbing everyone here so just stop it.' Tancred, ready to start shouting defensively at Manfred attempted to stand up, but was pulled back down again by a worried looking Emma. She gripped his hand tightly and whispered in his ear,

'You know what he's capable of. I don't want to lose you.' There was something in her calm, but anxious voice that stopped him and a sudden urge to reach out and kiss her again came close to overpowering him. The expression on Emma's face made Tancred feel instantly better inside, it made her look like the same strange desire had passed through her as well. After that, the two hours of homework never seemed to last that long…


	2. Phone Calls and Early Mornings

Several days passed and Emma's euphoria and happiness never faltered, not even when she was being scolded by Manfred (long story short, Emma dropped a bit of watermelon and Manfred stepped on it and went flying across the canteen). She was still trying to get over the fact that she was going out with Tancred. Now they sat next to each other in basically every lesson that they had together. When the weekend rolled around (surprisingly quicker than it normally did), Tancred got off the bus with Emma and walked her home to the bookshop. He didn't come in (too much homework!) but he made sure she got in safe. Emma stood on the front step, making her roughly the same height as Tancred. He kissed her lovingly on the cheek. Almost against his will, he let go of her hand, promised to come early the next day and left, walking slowly, turning around every five seconds to wave, back home. When Tancred was completely out of sight, Emma closed the door of Ingledew's Bookshop and grinned happily to herself.

As soon as Emma shut the door, the phone began ringing its shrill ring.

'I'll get it Auntie!' Emma called. She picked up the phone, pressed it to her right ear and said,

'Hello? May I please ask who is speaking?'

It turned out to be Olivia.

'Hello, hello, hello. Olivia speaking; let me take a wild guess and say it is Emma?' she exclaimed questioningly in a wild, eccentric, _you've won the lottery_ voice.

'Hey Liv, what do you want?' Emma asked, not unkindly.

'Great news Em. You know I lost my diary this week?' said Olivia.

How could Emma forget? Olivia had come in after homework and started shouting at literally _everyone_ in the dormitory, because someone had taken her diary. She was so protective over it, that even Emma didn't know what was written in it.

'Well,' she continued, 'That lying pillock, Charlie-flipping-Bone took it! And it said that I fancy _you-know-who_ in it!' she shouted down the phone, causing Emma to remove the phone from her ear and hold it about thirty centimetres away from her ear to prevent sudden deafness.

'And then, it turns out that he liked me too! But he didn't want to say anything because he thought I didn't like him! And he thought I would laugh at him! Like, when have I ever done that?'

Emma grinned smugly to herself, better not to reply to that, she thought.

'Yeah..' she decided to say. 'Well anyway, that's great news!'

But Olivia wasn't finished yet (not that she was _ever_ finished talking).

'And you know that girl, what's her name? Urm, Robin Summers. Yeah, that's it! The one with gingery hair?'

Emma knew Robin well. She had always been wondering how someone that glitzy and glamorous didn't have boys following her around everywhere. But Robin always said she didn't need a guy to be happy, so she was always bright and bubbly; always smiling, with bright white teeth.

'Well, she's going out with Fidelio! It turned out that she's fancied him for a while, and he's fancied her since she started here! She's been quite down recently, because apparently she's upset that no guys like her,' Liv babbled.

Emma smiled broadly in happiness for Robin. Robin was always happy, but she had recently confided in Emma that she was really upset about the whole situation. It was nice to see her happy for once.

'So,' Olivia continued (yet again), 'Are you and Tanc coming to the Pet's Café tomorrow? Me and Charlie, Sander and Lauren, Robin and Fido and hopefully you two are as well, it'll be like a couples gathering.'

Emma pondered and then replied, 'Yeah, we'll be there.'

Little did Emma know that tomorrow wasn't going to turn out at all like she expected.

Tancred arrived on Emma's doorstep bright an early the next day. He greeted her with a smile and a quick kiss on the cheek.

'God, Tanc. When people say bright and early, it means at about half nine, not five!' Emma exclaimed, yawning halfway through. But she had never been so happy to see him. Nightmares and all. Tancred invited himself in and Emma made them both a cup of hot chocolate. She wanted to go back to bed, but she also wanted to spend more time with Tancred. She just wanted to talk to him. They sat on the sofa in the book room and just chatted. Emma was still in her pajamas and was clutching a small pillow. A long lilac blanket was spread over the both of their bodies and she lied down on her side and put her head on his knees. He pulled a strand of hair that was hanging in front of her face and tucked it behind her ear. Soon enough though, she was fast asleep. Tancred put the rest of the blanket over her, gently stood up as not to disturb her, kissed her on the forehead and walked to the kitchen with the express intention of making himself some breakfast.

It was now almost six, so, trying to be very quiet; Tancred began to fry himself some eggs and bacon. However, when he wasn't paying attention, the eggs started to bubble very ferociously and it accidentally set the fire alarm off.

'Holy crappoly! God dammit! Shut up, shut up, shut up.' He whispered harshly at the eggs, making him look the tiniest bit mental, talking madly to inanimate objects.'

Miss Ingledew was woken by this and ran down the stairs, grabbing her mobile phone just in case she had to ring Paton Yewbeam. She entered the kitchen form the shadows, expecting to see a character out of 'Men in Black'. Instead…

'Hey Miss Ingledew, sorry I woke you up, I didn't notice the eggs going berserk. Emma let me in.' Tancred explained. Julia Ingledew just stood there looking dumbfounded and the tiniest bit confused, 'Emma's asleep in the lounge. I've tucked her in. Do you want an egg?'

'Urm, no thank you Tancred dear,' Julia said smiling, 'It's only six A.M. am I correct? Maybe you should go get some sleep.'

'Good thinking Miss Ingledew.' And with that he left the large, tiled kitchen, taking a fried egg from the pan and stuffing it whole in his mouth.


	3. Endowments and Vegeterians

Tancred slept on the opposite sofa to Emma until about nine thirty (normal 'early' time) when Miss Ingledew let Paton Yewbeam into the shop. Julia had completely forgotten about the light still on in the book room, and, as Paton walked in, the bulb exploded with an almighty 'pop'. Emma and Tancred both woke with a start and fell off their sofas.

'Sorry kids, I didn't know the light was on.' Paton said in an apologetic voice. Tancred and Emma assured him it was okay. Emma went upstairs to get changed, while Tancred retrieved a dustpan and brush from under the front desk. There was an awful lot of glass and when he head another 'pop' from the kitchen, he sauntered in, cleared up the glass, and put it all in the bin. He then went to the small cupboard next to the desk, pulled out two light bulbs and screwed them into place. Being so tall (about five foot nine) he, like Paton Yewbeam, was able to do this without the assistance of a stepladder.

Tancred causally walked into the kitchen where Julia Ingledew was again wearing a bemused expression. He could tell what she was thinking,

'Emma told me where everything was.' He said in an explanatory tone. Julia nodded her head at him. At this point, Emma bounced into the kitchen, beaming at Tancred and then she said to her Aunt and Uncle-to-be. Last week, Paton Yewbeam had proposed to Emma's Aunt. Blushing furiously, she had accepted and Paton now came early (although now as early as a certain Tancred Torsson) every day and stayed until late in the evening. Both were absolutely besotted with one another, and the wedding was planed to be in July, five weeks away. Emma had never seen her Aunt so happy before.

Emma looked especially beautiful today. She was wearing a bright green pair of skinny jeans with a white floaty t-shirt.

'Now, does anyone want any breakfast?' Julia asked.

'Yes please!' came three eager voices.

'So, four bacons, four tomatoes and four scrambled eggs?' she asked.

Tancred immediately blurted out,

'Sorry Miss Ingledew, but I'm a vegetarian.' Silence. Then everyone laughed aloud.

'Honestly, that chick Robin gave me like a huge hour long lecture about it so I decided to try it. That was a few months ago and I haven't eaten meat since!' he said serenely.

Silence. Again.

Julia spoke first,

'Okay then, three bacons, four tomatoes and four scrambled eggs?'

Paton, Emma and Tancred nodded in agreement.

At one o'clock, Emma and Tancred, hand in hand, walked happily to Frog Street. Until then, they had been up in Emma's room watching rom-coms on her TV. At once point, Tancred had laughed so hard he fell off the bed and hit his head on Emma's bedside cabinet.

'Ouch! Sugar!' he yelled in shock and agony. Emma stifled a giggle. She then took a red gel pen from her bedside table and wrote in fancy calligraphy on her hand,

'Emma + Tancred'. Tancred proceeded to write this on his hand. He leaned over and kissed her again. She flushed.

When they got to the Pet's Café, Emma retrieved Nancy (her pet duck) from the basket. Tancred meanwhile had no pet. He signalled to Gabriel, who came over with one of his fifty-three gerbils. He led them both over to a table where four other couples were sat: Charlie and Liv, Lysander and Lauren, Robin and Fido, and surprisingly Lola, Gabriel's new girlfriend, who had joined Bloor's Academy last term.

All the girls, especially Robin, looked very chic. Robin had her light ginger hair tied back in a ponytail which was really frizzy (looks like she forgot to brush her hair…again). She had jeans and a baggy Superdry jumper on with blue sneakers. He didn't wear any make-up, it irritated her pale skin. Olivia shot her a jealous look. She had dyed her hair electric blue and wore make-up to match. Lauren was just casual with a long brown leather shoulder bag. Lola sat quietly in the corner, holding Gabriel's hand under the table and laughing at his brown curly mop which currently had one of his gerbils stuck in. Fidelio stood up at the very crowded table and began,

'Hi guys,' as Tancred and Emma sat down with some nut-pom sticks,' as you know, six of us here are endowded. You will be probably happy to know, since Liv got found out last term, we have a new secret weapon! Kind of!' he said with a faltering smile while everyone just stared at him. Robin stood up, laughing at his awkwardness.

'You git, I was going to say that!' she said jokingly addressing Fidelio, 'Anyway, I found out yesterday that I am actually endowded, which I had no actual clue about! Now,' she looked around the empty café, apart from some girl Carys in the corner, 'I can demonstrate.' Liv shouted in agreement, as did Charlie and Emma. She was curious to see Robin's powers. Suddenly, Robin completely disappeared. Five seconds later, a ginger cat jumped onto the table and meowed meaningfully. The cat jumped onto Robin's chair and turned into a lizard, then a suck, then Tancred, then Lysander, then Olivia, and finally back into Robin. Everyone was quite, and completely utterly terrified. Robin Smyth was a fully powered shape-shifter.

'Common guys don't look so scared. I'm definitely on your side, the good side.' Everyone was reassured, until they heard a strange tapping on the window. It was Manfred Bloor! He had seen and heard everything. Their secret weapon had already been discovered! They all gazed fearfully at the heady boy and he shot them all a nasty grin of pure glee. Tancred, Lysander and Robin jumped up from the table and ran out the front of the Pets Café. Manfred saw them and started to run away, his expression turning from happiness to fear. He thought he was going to get away, but that's when Tancred's endowment kicked in. Lightning struck fiercely in front of Manfred missing him by millimetres. He screamed (like a little girl to all of their amusement) and tried to keep on sprinting. But Robin and Lysander, both being champion runners kept up and finally cornered him outside Bloors.

Inside the café, Mr and Mrs Onimous walked up to Emma and the rest of the gang, who were all getting a tad anxious.

'What was all that about then?' asked Mr Onimous, his whiskery face bristling with questions. They all hesitated, although Mr Onimous had proved time and time again that he was trustworthy, they were all concerned. Olivia and Fidelio obviously had no such qualms because they both started explaining at exactly the same time.

'Well, Robin found out yesterday that she was endowded when she was at mine,' Fidelio began, 'and she was just telling the others and Manfred saw, so Tanc, Sander and Robin have all gone running after him.' Olivia finished.

'And they're taking ages; they've been gone for like a half hour,' said Emma with a worried expression on her pretty face, 'I'm going after them, if something happens to Tancred, well, I'll never forgive myself.' She said finally, and then left.

'We're going as well' everyone else chorused together.

'Sorry Mr Onimous, we'll be right back,' explained Charlie. And then Charlie, Olivia, Lola, Fidelio and Lauren followed Emma and chased after the others.


	4. Dares and Bright Blue Hairdye

Outside Bloor's Academy, the ten children surrounded Manfred, many of them out of breath with stitches in their sides, but happy they were finally there.

'If you tell anyone about my endowment,' Robin hissed viciously, 'I will vous tuer.' Manfred didn't really understand that last part but he could tell it meant something really bad.

'O-oh-ok-ay.' Manfred stuttered, and then he ran through the high iron gates, squealing with fear. Robin wiped imaginary dust off her shoulders. Emma and Tancred stood holding hands, as did everyone else with their 'other halves'. Even though Robin was more outgoing, Fido was taller and older so he was able to keep her in check, most of the time. He clutched her hand.

The five happy couples walked back to the Pets Café to get their pets. Fido, Robin, Gabriel, Lola, Lysander and Lauren all went back home and Charlie went to Tancred's. Tancred kissed Emma, and Olivia gave Charlie a chaste kiss on the cheek before he left, running after the storm-boy.

'Come on Em, we need to go back to my house quickly, I need to get my stuff!' said Olivia as she ran down the street. Emma had invited Liv, Robin, Lauren and Lola round to her house (well, the bookshop) for a sleepover that evening. Lauren, Lola and Robin had all gone home until the evening, but Olivia's mother was working on a film in Greece at the moment, so Olivia was staying at Emma's until she got back. The famous Viva Valery was a brilliant mother, but didn't get to spend as much as time with her daughter as she would've liked.

At Ingledew's Bookshop, Julia was still playing host to Paton Yewbeam who at the present moment had his nose in a book about medieval jousting.

'Auntie,' Emma called, 'we're just going to Olivia's because she forgot her stuff.' She explained, also very tempted to add 'again' to the end of that sentence. She popped Nancy and George (Liv's rabbit) on the counter, waved goodbye and ran back up the street to meet Olivia.

'Come on Emma, if you wanna get back by next week, you're gonna have to get a move on!' Liv said jokingly, beckoning to Emma. In ten minutes, they reached Dragon Street and Olivia reached into her pocket and pulled out her key, which had a piece of red (already chomped on) piece of chewing gum stuck on.

'Ewww Liv!'

Olivia gave her a withering look, pulled the gum off and forced open the door. She flew up the stairs, shoved her pink hair spray, pajamas, random clothes and shoes and a toothbrush and went back downstairs to get her hairbrush which was lying on top of a banana in the kitchen. She quickly brushed her electric blue hair, grabbed her bag and crashed into a bewildered Emma standing in the middle of the living room inspecting her nails.

'Liv, be careful, I've got a sharp pin in my head!' said Emma who was currently lying on the big fluffy white carpet.

'Sorry Emma, it's these stilettos I'm wearing.' Liv said, holding up her right foot where an electric pink seven inch heel was styled on her foot. She grabbed Emma's arm and yanked her up.

Emma's phone started to ring, and the song 'Barbie Girl' started blaring out. Emma blushed and answered it as quickly as possible, falling over again in the process.

'Hello, who's speaking?' asked Emma.

'Em, its Tancred' came his soft, mellow voice, 'I'm just making sure you got home alright. You seem a bit…breathless.'

'I'm alright Tanc, I'm fine. Liv knocked me over by accident with her seven inch heels.' Emma said grinning at Olivia, her cheeks starting to go back to the normal pale colour.

Tancred's voice came burbling out of the phone. He sounded a bit worried,

'Emma, are you alright? Do you want me to ring an ambulance? Are you hurt? Did you hurt your back? Okay, I'm coming down right now!' he exclaimed.

'Tanc, I'm fine, don't worry.' She said, trying to calm him down a bit more.

'Are you sure you're okay?'

'Yes, I'm absolutely fine!'

'Okay, I love you.'

'I love you too Tanc.'

'I'll come and see you tomorrow.'

'Okay, just please, not before nine.'

'Kay, bye, love you.'

'Bye, love you too.'

They both hung up at the same time. Olivia was stood up, her heels making her five foot nine inches had her hands on her hips, staring down at Emma who was still lying on the floor as if she was a mad woman.

'Next time you stand up, try and stay standing. You're not drunk; well you might be, on luurrrrvveeee!'

Emma glared at her.

'Shut up Liv, help me get up.' She said, annoyed. Olivia grabbed Emma's arm and her bag, pulled Emma up and together they left the empty house.

At Tancred's house, Charlie was feeling a little bit intimidated. Tancred and his father were having a 'little' argument. Tancred wanted Lysander, Charlie, Gabriel and Fido to come round for the night, but his father said he was only allowed to have one person round.

'Come _on_ dad! Emma's allowed all her mates to come round and her bedroom is tiny!' moaned Tancred from the top of the staircase.

A big smirk made itself comfortable on Mr Torsson's face.

'Oooh Emma; is she your girlfriend?' he teased.

Tancred thundered down the stairs. Outside, a hurricane was brewing. The windows slammed shut, almost smashing the two inch thick glass in the panes and the front door was hit by such a force of wind that it nearly blew off its hinges. Torrential rain splashed against the concrete ground and, soon after, hailstones the size of golf balls crashed down onto the ground. Tornado-force, face-whipping winds flew pitilessly, blowing over bicycles left outside and causing smaller trees to snap and break and fall. The whole house was filled with a horrible shrieking wind.

'TANCRED TORSSON, CONTROL YOURSELF!' Mr Torsson roared. Tancred gave him a vicious glare and after five minutes of stony silence, the hailstones had more or less stopped and the ferocious winds had subsided. However, the torrential rain was worst than ever.

'Sorry Charlie, once my storms have started, they take a while to cool down.' As he said this, his blue polo shirt breezed about in an apparent demonstration.

Mrs Torsson entered the hallway, her hands on her hips and flour on her face.

'Tancred, please don't start a gale when I'm trying to cook. And come on sweetheart,' she said, addressing Mr Torsson, 'let him have his friends around just for one evening.' Her voice was so calm and persuasive; Tancred was soon ringing Lysander, Gabriel and Fidelio, telling them to come in about an hour.

'Okay girls, Emma's room is up the stairs and first on the left. She's in there with Olivia. If you want anything to eat or drink just ask.' Explained Julia Ingledew with a smile, as the three girls (Lola, Robin and Lauren) arrived. Robin had arrived in style, on the back of a huge red Ducati. It had made one hell of a noise and scared a tiny little black cat almost to death.

The three girls made their way up to Emma's room when Robin suddenly had an amazing idea…

Lauren and Lola both ran into Emma's bedroom and slammed the little wooden door behind them. They were both bright red in the face and wore a look of utter terror on their sweaty faces.

'There's a…thing out there. Something really big…' Lola stuttered. She and Lauren were both panting.

Suddenly the door slammed open and in came the most terrifying thing an arachnophobic ever saw; a giant six foot spider with sharp pincers and blood red eyes. It started crawling with its horrible eight legs over the ceiling towards Emma and Olivia who were now screaming in horror. They scrambled back to a corner where the spider slyly cornered them. It opened its huge mouth; pincers coated in blood and saliva and moved forward to consume them. Emma and Olivia both shut their eyes tightly waiting for a jab of pain. Instead they heard a large squeal of laughter coming from right in front of them.

Olivia and Emma opened their eyes slowly to see Robin on the floor, literally crying with hysterical laughter.

'Oh my god, you actually believed it was real. You really thought that a giant spider was going to eat you!' Robin choked out. Olivia grabbed a nearby pillow from Emma's bed and smashed it relentlessly over Robin's head, until Robin took the initiative to grab one too and retaliate. Emma, Lola and Lauren all grabbed a pillow as well and started attacking each other, squealing loudly and screaming when they Robin started running round tickling them all.

No one knew or ever found out how many feathers or shreds of dignity they lost in that half an hour. The fight finally ended when Julia Ingledew entered the room.

'Girls, dinner is nearly ready, what pizza do you all want?' she asked kindly, broadly smiling at all the girls frozen statures, feathers still flying through the air like tiny particles of air. All of them held a pillow with feathers falling out of one end and huge rips all along the case. Everyone had pepperoni (duh! Said Olivia, it's the nicest!) apart from Robin, who, being very boring according to everyone else, had Margherita (hello? I'm a vegetarian, I can't eat pepperoni!)

When Miss Ingledew left to answer the front door and cook the pizzas, Olivia pulled out a big bottle from her bag. It wasn't just a bottle though, it was a spinning 'truth or dare' bottle. Grinning evilly, she placed in the middle of the room and instructed the four girls to sit in a circle around it. He girls sat and Olivia spun the bottle round. After a few seconds, it landed on Lauren. She chose dare, obviously. She wasn't some kind of _wimp_.

'Hmmmm,' said Olivia, 'what can we dare Miss Lauren to do?'

Everyone pondered for a moment and then Lola suddenly burst out,

'You should prank call Lysander and pretend to be a pizza guy!'

Robin, again, burst out laughing.

'That's the oldest trick in the book, but it's good.' She said cheerfully, wiping a tear out of the corner of her eye. Everyone turned around and stared, eyebrows raised. She smiled appreciatively.

'I dare you to shout out of the window, "I'm a crazy lunatic". I know it's not the best, but maybe…' suggested Olivia. Emma grinned.

Lauren walked over to the window and everyone else fond out how loud Lauren Ball could shout,

'I'M A CRAZY LUNATIC!' she bellowed. Lauren was so loud that dogs started barking like crazy and a car slid on an emergency stop and almost crashed into a large parked van.

'Well Lauren, please don't do that again. I think my eardrums have been permanently perforated,' implored Emma, 'and you're scaring Nancy.' Emma pointed to the large duck box sat quietly in the corner of Emma's modest bedroom.

Lola had been unusually quite throughout this dare game. She wasn't endowded or anything but she could always tell if something had changed, like shifted. It was difficult to explain, but it was just a feeling that she had. She also had incredibly good hearing. And something was different. Something was strange. And she was soon to find out what.

'Girls!' shouted Miss Ingledew from downstairs, 'Dinner's ready!'

'Thank God for that,' exclaimed Olivia, 'I'm starving!'

As the girls walked through the door, Lola felt a slight shift in temperature. Not a big drop, but a few degrees. It was really weird, there were no doors or windows open and when she came out into the corridor it was the same temperature as before. And, even weirder, there was a faint ripple-y feeling, like walking through water. She thought of saying something, but she had probably been imagining it. She pushed the thought aside. 'Don't be so stupid' she thought to herself.

'Don't make such a big fuss.' She muttered aloud to herself.

'What was that Lola?' Emma asked, noticing her friend's slightly frowning expression.

'Oh nothing Emma,' Lola lied, 'I was err…'

She was spared the thought of answering when Olivia, who was at the front, took a tumble down the three remaining stairs and landed hard on her backside. Straight after a loud smashing noise came a tiny groan of pain.

'Paton,' said an exasperated female voice, 'that's the third one today.'

'Sorry Auntie, it's my fault. I turned the light on to see Olivia.' Emma called out.

'Ok then Emma; just make sure you remember for next time sweetie.' Miss Ingledew shouted back through the flat.

The girls all half-walked, half-jogged to the kitchen. Olivia, however, decided that it would be fun to sprint. Her fun ran out when she unfortunately crashed into Paton Yewbeam.

'Sorry Mr Yewbeam.' Olivia apologized humbly. Paton smiled at her and nodded his head. When he had gone into the main reading room, Olivia grabbed a plate from the side counter and ran to the table. She sat down and yelled,

'Hurry up guys! I'm starving!'

Everyone hastened to sit down, angry Olivia was not pretty. Emma sat at the head of the table, Lola and Olivia on one side and Robin and Lauren on the other. Julia Ingledew carried in three plates of pizza, two with pepperoni and one with just plain Margherita. Olivia grabbed a piece of pepperoni pizza and shoved it whole in her mouth, dripping tomato sauce and a little bit of pepperoni onto her blue miniskirt.

'Damn it!' she exclaimed. Everyone just laughed at her.


	5. Tennis and a Kidnapping

After pizza, marshmallows, cheesy Doritos, chocolate strawberries and homemade chocolate cake, everyone (even Olivia!) felt absolutely stuffed. Everyone that was, apart from Lola. She could hardly eat anything. That weird _thing_ upstairs had her really worried. It felt like…like a trap or something. It had made her lose her appetite completely. Something bad was going to happen. Lola knew it.

'Lola, are you okay? You look a bit pale, and you didn't really eat much?' Emma asked, as she bounded up to Lola, and after seeing her expression, she was immediately worried. Lola thought about telling Emma, and then decided it was probably best to confide in her. Everyone else had gone outside, so Lola could speak freely,

'Well,' Lola began, 'there's this thing upstairs.' Emma looked completely bewildered, so Lola started from the very beginning.

'When you lot were playing truth or dare, I felt like…a change outside the room. And then when we came downstairs, when I walked through your door it was like walking through water. It's making me really anxious. There's something there, something bad,' her eyes filled with nervousness and became as big as golf balls. She looked terrified. She grabbed Emma's shoulders and looked into her eyes and said, 'something bad is going to happen.' Lola then walked out and behind her she called, 'I can feel it.' And then Emma stood alone in the corridor, very confused and scared.

In the garden, Olivia, Lauren and Robin were playing tennis. Lola didn't really feel like joining in. She still felt slightly ill. Emma, like Lola didn't feel like participating either. And it didn't help when Robin served a tennis ball and it hit Emma on the head. She was expecting an apology but all she saw, for the second time that evening was Robin in the floor, crying with laughter. She frowned out her and then went to throw it back at her. Emma missed by several inches, and then laughed at her fail.

For the next hour, Emma and Robin played doubles against Lauren and Olivia. Lola, who still wasn't feeling great, was the point-scorer/counter. Robin and Emma were a good team. Not in the fact that they were equally matched, it meant Emma didn't have to try. You see, Robin was rather good, and Emma, eh, not so good. But they got on well.

Lauren and Olivia, in the last few weeks, had become almost inseparable. Even though they didn't go to the same school or anything, Lauren had recently moved into Dragon Street.

Emma and Robin had won three games so far and Liv and Lauren had won, surprisingly, none.

'Okay, if you win the next set, we'll stop playing.' Olivia said after Lola, Robin and Emma declared themselves to be getting bored of playing tennis.

'Alright then,' Robin agreed, 'as long as I get to serve.'

_Damn! _Olivia thought, we're gonna lose badly.

Robin seemed to guess what she was thinking and grinned evilly. She bounced the ball twice then threw it high in the air to serve and SMACK. Like a bullet from a gun, the tennis ball shot across the net and hit the floor. Lauren hadn't even tried to hit it; it probably would've gone though her racket. Olivia had just managed to get out of the way before it hit her. You could see the air moving around the ball.

'Aha!' Robin shouted and then high-fived Emma, '15-love to us!'

In the next ten minutes, Robin and Emma had won, a tennis ball (unsurprisingly served by Robin) had gone through the racket Olivia was using, and Lola was sporting a blood nose from the extreme heat (yeah right, it was so Robin again!). Everyone was exhausted and the girls finally made their way upstairs to Emma's room.

On the stairs, Lola's stomach started churning. There was this feeling in the air that she couldn't quite define. Emma's head was spinning and she suddenly realised that Lola was right; something bad was going to happen.

Olivia and Lauren had raced ahead. There was a pounding of footsteps, a creak of an opening door and then silence. No chattering or giggling or any noise at all. Not even the sound of heavy breathing.

'Liv, Lauren?' Emma called. Silence. Robin and Emma sprinted up the stairs. Lola paused, and then scurried after them.

'EMMA!' a voice screamed, 'EMMA! Where are you?' called the frantic voice again, 'EMMA!'

Lola ran up the stairs to find Robin looking into Emma's room, a terrified expression on her fragile face. She turned to Lola and stammered,

'E-e-e-mma j-just disappeared in front of me.'

There was something there. Something had made Olivia, Lauren and Emma disappear.

'Okay, we need to go and get Miss Ingledew, and maybe Paton Yewbeam and the guys. They'll know what to do,' Lola said forcefully, 'they're all at Thunder House.'

Robin just nodded, tears strolling gently down her cheeks.

'Robin, what's wrong?' Lola asked gently,

'Nothing, it's just, what if they never get back? Robin questioned shakily. For this, Lola could say nothing, she had no answer.

'Come on, the least we can do to help is to go and get Miss Ingledew and see what she and Mr Yewbeam can do.' Lola urged, rushing down the stairs to get away form the voice that was beginning to pull at her waist. It didn't work, it felt like someone was grabbing her wrist and pulling her backwards.

'Lola,' Robin screamed, 'help me please!'

Robin was being dragged backwards from the middle of the stairs and had hit her head on the wall. On the verge of losing consciousness she was slowly pulled through a beam of bright light until she disappeared. Lola tried running again, but this time she was dragged on her back up the stairs and disappeared.

It was a portal. A portal that soon after vanished.

At half past eleven, Julia Ingledew went to check on the girls. They had been extraordinarily quiet. It was quite unnerving, normally when Emma had friends around her house, especially Olivia Vertigo, they were all very noisy. But tonight, it had been totally silent. As she climbed the stairs, there was definitely something amiss. Julia just couldn't place it. As she reached Emma's room, she opened the door cautiously. Suppose they were asleep. When the door was fully open, Julia couldn't help but display a little expression of shock upon her long face. All the girls were gone. None of the beds (well, inflatable mattresses) had been slept in, all their bags were unpacked and shoes lay strewn all over the floor. It was apparent that no one had been in here since before dinner. They wouldn't and couldn't have sneaked out, for Julia and Paton had been sat in the book room, which was right next to the door. And if you thought they could've got out of the back door, you would've been wrong for one simple reason, there was no back door.

'Paton?' Julia called out anxiously.

'Yes dear?' he called back up in a loud, gruff tone.

'Um, could you please come up here a minute? Something's happened and I don't know quite what.' She stammered nervously.

Paton Yewbeam bounded up the staircases in record time to see his fiancée standing in the doorway of her niece's room. He gazed into the empty room,

'Where are they?'

Julia looked at him and sighed out heavily, 'I don't know Paton, they were here at half nine, they were outside and then they went up to Emma's room,' and she glanced around the room, 'and now they've completely disappeared.'

Paton didn't know what to do. He grabbed his phone out of his jacket pocket, knowing where he was and who he was with, and rang Charlie.

At Thunder House, home of the infamous Torsson's, Charlie and all the boys were tucking into an almost midnight feast, when Charlie's mobile began to ring. It turned out to be Uncle Paton,

'Hey Uncle Paton,' Charlie said cheerfully.

'Charlie, I'm at the bookshop, I'm with Julia, you might want to put this on speaker, you all need to hear this.' Paton shouted down the phone. Charlie hastened to obey. Tancred, Lysander, Gabriel and Fidelio all stared at Charlie when he put the phone in the middle of their circle.

'Lads, it's Paton Yewbeam,' Paton burbled down the phone.

'Hey Mr Yewbeam,' everyone replied.

'Sir, no disrespect,' Tancred started, 'but this needs to be really important. I'm starving and there's no crisps left.'

'Tancred Torsson! Do your really think that I would ring if this wasn't an important issue?' Paton asked hotly.

'No sir, sorry sir.' Tancred mumbled, embarrassed.

'This can't wait lads, it's extremely important. I'm at Ingledew's with Julia,' Paton said quickly, 'all the girls _were_ here.'

'_Were_ here? What do you mean Uncle P?' asked Charlie.

'I'm getting to it,' he replied gruffly, 'they're all gone. We don't know why and we don't know why, but they've all completely disappeared.'

'WHAT?' came five startled voices. Paton Yewbeam held the phone away from his ear to avoid sudden deafness.

'They've all gone, Julia's rang the police but they said they can't do anything at the moment.'

'When did they disappear? Where did they go?' asked Tancred, anger building up in his voice, demanding an answer.

'Look boys, they didn't leave the house, the garden or out of the front door. They disappeared inside the house.' Paton exclaimed testily.

'Okay Uncle P, we're going to come down right now!' Charlie shouted, pulling a red sweatshirt on over his pyjama top.

'Charlie you can't come down now, its eleven thirty, who's going to bring you?'

'Uncle P, I don't care what the time is, if all the girls have disappeared, and then obviously you know who's taken them. It's obvious it's the Bloor's. If we don't leave now, then we might never get them back.' Charlie said determinedly and then he hung up.

All the boys grabbed a jumper and shoes, thundered down the stairs and ran out the front door, after Tancred wrote a small note for his parents telling them where they went.

Tancred was full of vehemence for his missing girlfriend. Within five minutes the five boys had reached Ingledew's Bookshop.

Lysander pounded his fist on the door until Paton Yewbeam rushed to answer it. Tancred glared at him and shouted,

'Where the HELL are they?'

Everyone sat in the book room with a mug of steaming hot tea, although no one was drinking it. They all sat in a stone cold silence. No one spoke until Julia Ingledew said what they were all thinking,

'What am I going to tell their parents?'

No one had an answer for this. They all stared at her, 'Well, the girls have gone missing, they disappeared in the house, what should I tell their parents?'

'Like you say Miss Ingledew, the girls are missing,' said Tancred, 'So why aren't we out there looking for them?'

'We are not looking for them now, because we have not the faintest idea where they have been because it would be foolish. We need to think about it logically.' Paton replied indifferently.

'So then,' Charlie suggested, 'let's think logically. Who would have taken them?'

Everyone thought hard, except Fidelio and Gabriel who already had a pretty good idea,

'Well, who can make people disappear if they want them too? Who could take them supernaturally?' said Gabriel. It was the name on everyone's mind when Lysander said.

'The Bloors. We need to find them as soon as possible.'


	6. ZoS and a Bad Escape Plan

Inside Bloor's Academy, in the west wing, down deep in the cellars, in a small damp room, lay the five terrified girls. The room was miniscule, with no door, no windows and no lights. Robin and Lauren both lay unconscious, from landing badly out of the portal. The portal, which had now disappeared, had given them all a pretty rough ride. Olivia and Lauren had arrived first and landed on the dusty floor. Olivia had landed on her knees, but when Lauren came out she had landed on her head and banged it severely. Olivia had a massive bleeding gash on her forehead and Lauren was completely lifeless apart from a faint heartbeat. When Emma had come tumbling through, about twenty seconds later, she had landed on her side and bruised her left leg. Rolling in the dust, she had crawled over to Olivia who was desperately trying to revive Lauren. When Robin shot through, she had landed on her back but still managed to shout out,

'Who put that bloody thing there? Bloody hell, my back hurts!'

And then Lola came through and landed next to her. A huge breeze followed, a flash of light, as fast and bright as a bolt of lightning, appeared and then the portal closed. Only a single thing lay behind as a clue, a small business-like card with the initials 'ZoS' on it.

'Where are we?' said Emma, who was panicking. She then wiped her mouth which was smeared with blood and dirt.

'Ooh, hard one,' said Olivia sarcastically, 'how about trapped, injured and in a tiny room with no food and no light. That good enough for you?'

Emma glared at her,

'But why are we here? Who made that portal? How are we going to get home? Lola whispered. There was a deadly quite until Robin woke up and hit her head again,

'Damn it! Ouch, that hurt!'

Everyone crawled over as quickly as they could on their hands and knees. Their faces were already covered with dirt, a bit of blood and lots of tiny bruises. Their arms and legs were covered in splinters and large cuts and gashes. Their clothes were ripped and torn and stained. It looked like there had been a fire.

They grabbed Robin's elbows and pulled her up so she was sat against the wall. Everyone, save Lauren who was still unconscious, sat up against the wall and breathed out heavily. The only thing that they could manage and remember to do was to simply breathe.

Lauren's only sign of life was a very weak heartbeat.

After half an hour of silence, panting, and a few tears from Emma and Lola, Olivia suddenly exclaimed,

'I'm starving. Has anyone got any food?' Everyone turned and glared.

'No Liv, no one had food,' Robin growled sourly, 'If we had known we were gonna be kidnapped by a portal that disappeared, then we would have brought some.'

And that ended the conversation.

In another room in the West Wing, the three male Bloor's, and a small thirteen year old girl by the name of Zara O'Sheridan sat in a large furnished room with a huge fireplace to complete the décor. Its flames blazed, keeping the room at a stifling temperature, even though they were in one of the turrets of the grand house. It was absolutely boiling. Zara looked extremely uncomfortable and when she looked at old Ezekiel Bloor, it sent horrible shivers down her spine. Stupid, dumb, horrible, murdering…people, she thought. Although only the Bloor's knew, Zara was endowded with a very powerful gift. She could create portals leading from anywhere to any when, all over the globe. If you came within about ten metres of it, you would be sucked through to the destination on the other end of the portal. And why should she be in this damp, dusty old building, working for the Bloor's?

They had kidnapped her from Loth's Academy in Wales and threatened to kill her parents. She had no other family, she was forced to. She knew that their threats weren't empty, she knew about the things that they had done.

Last year, Dr. Loth had attended the 'Hundred Heads Dinner'. Lots of secrets had been revealed that evening. Dr. Loth had told everyone about Zara, his star pupil, his special endowded student. She was the most powerful endowded student in Wales. Dr. Loth had happily handed her over, in exchange for lots of cash, of course.

'So, why exactly did you make me bring these specific students here?' Zara asked, plucking up the courage to ask.

'We needed that ridiculous Summers girl, and we needed to punish the Vertigo girl also,' Ezekiel cackled evilly, 'the others just got in the way, anyway, the more the merrier!'

Zara frowned,

'What are you going to do with them?' Zara asked, her voice quivering.

'We'll just keep them there until somebody finds them,' replied Dr Bloor, who was grinning nastily. Manfred coughed,

'And no one ever will, the room is soundproof and their endowments don't work there. They're completely undetectable. No one will ever find them!'

At this point, all the Bloor's laughed, and in Ezekiel's case, cackled evilly.

Zara was disgusted. Blessed then walked over to Zara and whined. She jumped off her chair and stroked him gently. He licked her face. She giggled.

'O'Sheridan shut up. Go back to your room.' Dr Bloor bellowed hoarsely.

Zara gave him the dirtiest look she could possibly manage and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her and just managed to stop herself from crying.

All the guys stayed at Ingledew's Bookshop for the night, but none of them were able to sleep. At seven in the morning, Tancred and Fidelio could stand it no more. They got up off the sofa and walked towards the front door.

Where are you guys going?' Gabriel asked curiously.

'Where do you think?' Tancred replied sarcastically, giving Gabriel a withering look.

'We're coming too.' Lysander said calmly in his soft African tones. Fidelio groaned, 'Hurry up then.'

The boys had made such a racket, Paton Yewbeam came in from the kitchen, frowning.

'Where do you think you lot are going?' he demanded.

'Bloor's Academy, to get the girls back, got a problem with that? No? Good, we'll be off then.' Tancred replied without waiting for an answer. The boys made their way towards the door; they were totally surprised when Paton Yewbeam made no attempt to stop them whatsoever.

'Aren't you going to try and stop us Uncle P?' said Charlie. Paton's answer was rather funny,

'Would you like me to?'

Charlie grinned, but then looked confused and asked, 'Why not?'

Mr Yewbeam pondered this for a while and then finally said,

'Love affects us in many ways, and we gents will never stop trying to save the ones we love the most.'

Everyone looked openly shocked, and they all stood in a very awkward silence until Fidelio had the good manners and courtesy to ask,

'Would you like to accompany us Mr Yewbeam? It's just you can be very persuading sometimes.'

Paton nodded and then entered the kitchen to say 'bye' to Miss Ingledew. Five minutes later, he emerged with pink lipstick on his cheeks. All the boys stifled a laugh, and the five young boys, and the six foot high man left the bookstore.

As Zara stormed through the empty hallways of Bloor's Academy, she was aware of the portraits watching her. One particular painting affected her more so than any of the others. The painting was of one of her less _affectionate_ ancestors, Laila Stormcrow. This time she was so sure that Laila Stormcrow was watching her; she stopped by the portrait and started shouting,

'Just stop it. I know your trying to annoy me, just STOP IT!'

Zara turned angrily to see a small white-haired boy staring at her as if she were crazy.

'What are you looking at?' she snapped grumpily.

'Why are you shouting at that painting?' the little boy asked her. She just frowned at him. 'Who are you?' he asked, 'I'm Billy, what's your name?' he asked her, 'Is there something wrong?' he asked gently and he walked up to her.

Zara looked up at him, tears gently trickling down her face,

'Yes there is.'

Zara mad herself comfortable on the end of Billy's bed. She had told him all about how the Bloor's had threatened her family, how she had been stolen in the middle of the night, how her portals had captures the five innocent girls.

'And then that repulsive old man told me that he wouldn't let me go home unless I transported back in time to when the Red King was alive.' Zara finished through sobs. Her voice then grew hysterical, 'I mean, how am I supposed to do that? I'm good, but I'm not that good, I don't know how to do them properly in the time continuum, I've tried but it only works within about a ten years time scale!'

'And how am I going to get those poor girls out? It's all my fault isn't it? I've just about killed them!'

Billy had said nothing through Zara's whole speech although he had expressed his views using a few facial expressions.

'Don't you have to picture where they enter and where they leave the portal, don't you?' Billy asked.

Zara silently nodded, but she had no idea how it was relevant to her problem.

'Then we can find them!' Billy said, jumping off his bed, 'Come on, you can lead the way!'

And Zara had no choice but to follow him out of the dormitory and towards the West Wing of this hideous building.

'I know what this place is called!' cried Olivia, breaking the silence, 'It's called the Grey Room! Charlie told me about it. He was in here once, the Bloors trapped him here.' Everyone grinned, trust Charlie. But Robin had an idea,

'How did he get out?' she said excitedly, jumping up from the floor. Olivia looked a bit uncomfortable, 'Urm, Robin,' she said awkwardly to the girl who was beaming brightly, 'he didn't manage to get himself out, he had to be let out. He said it's impossible to escape without someone letting you out.'

Robin's smile faded, 'And no one's going to do that anytime soon are they?' Emma added in. Lola nodded in agreement. The silence crept back in.

Ten minutes later, Robin jumped back up,

'Guys, just think about it a sec. When Charlie was in here, no offence, but his endowment was a bit useless. But I'm a _shape-shifter_. If like turn into a door, then you can go through me and I bet this place leads to a room somewhere!'

Everyone else stared, totally expressionless. Robin was annoyed that they had failed to absorb the ingeniality of her plan.

'Shall we at least try it?'

Everyone nodded,

'What about Lauren?' Emma questioned.

'Well, we're going to take her with us,' Robin said sarcastically, 'obviously'.

Emma felt a little bit stupid. She grabbed Lauren's arms and along with Olivia, they dragged her over to Robin.

'Okay, here we go.' Robin closed her eyes and pictured a simple wooden door. She tried to make her body as stiff as possible and tried to transform. She opened her eyes. She was still Robin. Robin tried again and again, but she couldn't change.

'Why isn't it working?' she exclaimed.

'Liv, make an illusion.' Emma cried.

'Why?' Liv asked, puzzled.

'Just do it!'

Liv thought of a large brown grizzly bear. Nothing happened. Emma was also trying to change into a glossy falcon, like the one she had read about just last Wednesday in a geography lesson. No success.

'What the hell is going on?' Olivia shouted furiously.

Lola replied, 'I think that this room has got something, like a special power that makes sure that your endowments don't work.'

'So you mean, we've lost our endowments?' Emma asked desperately, 'But my endowment makes me who I am! I can't lose it!'

'Nah, don't worry, what Lola means is that you can't use them in this particular room.' Said Lauren in a matter-of-factly way.

Everyone nodded, and then suddenly,

'OH MY GOD! LAUREN!' came four voices from the room.

'Oh thank Heaven, you're alive, we thought you were dead!' whispered Lola, 'are you okay?'

Lauren sat down on her buttocks and said, 'I'm stronger than I look. I can survive a trip through a magical portal.'

And then came a huge CRUNCH! And a huge crash of wall.

Three brightly coloured cats smashed through one of the walls. They beckoned to the girls to come over, but the wall had sealed back up again.

'Flames!' Emma cried joyfully.

Now they had a way out! Their warm coats filled the room with heat and light. Everyone was in a state of shock. They looked at each other's injuries for the first time, they looked so much worse in the light.

Emma's lip was swollen and bleeding. Lauren's face was covered in deep scratches. Olivia had bruises on every square inch of her body. Robin's wrist looked…wrong, one of the bones was stuck out at a horrifying angle. Lola's injuries were too horrible to describe, but one thing that could be mentioned; she had a long trail of blood dribbling down her face from a large cut right next to her eye, so whenever she blinked, all she could see was red.

Curiously, the Flames herded the girls into a circle in the centre of the tiny room and started pacing around them; faster and faster until they were surrounded by giant, leaping flames. Round and round for minutes, or it could've been hours. The Flames were comforting and when they finally stopped, the girls found that their bodies were no longer covered in goose pimples, but warm and their injuries no longer pained them. The cats stayed with the girls all night long until they finally drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

Zara and Billy raced down the corridors of Bloors Academy towards the West Wing. Without a second thought Zara raced up the stairs. Billy hesitated, if the Bloor's found out about this, he would be dead. Zara was at the top of the stairs, when she gazed down and saw Billy standing still and staring into space.

'Come on Billy, do you want to find them?' she asked.

'Of course, it's just like, I'm wondering what would happen if the Bloors find me? I'd be in so much trouble…' he trailed off.

'Don't worry, I'll just say you were following me, and I got loss.'

Billy was slightly reassured and charged up the stairs. After five minutes of wrong ways, dead ends and many twists and turns, Zara found the place where the girls were hidden. They banged and kicked the walls, but the girls could not hear, they were oblivious to the people trying to rescue them.


	7. Portals and Problems

The five young men and the almost giant adult came striding up to Bloors Academy early on the Sunday morning. Paton Yewbeam pounded his fist constantly against the huge oak door until a loud screeching voice cried,

'What do you want?'

'You know why we're here!' he boomed.

'Come right in then.' The voice replied, screeching with laughter.

Tancred Torsson then conjured up a bolt of lightning from his palm and directed it straight at the enormous wooden medieval door and burnt a hole right through the lock. He kicked the door open with his foot and entered. He disappeared. Gabriel, Fidelio, Lysander and Charlie looked bewildered and hurried in after him. They too disappeared. Paton Yewbeam rushed in afterwards and also disappeared.

Ezekiel Bloor, who had been watching this rather entertaining scene from his wheelchair in the turret of the Academy, cackled with glee. He knew it was a good idea to get that Zara girl to create as many portals around the school as possible.

Back at Ingledew's, Julia was cooking lunch, spilling tears all over it. Suddenly, there was a massive crash and a loud bang in the book room. She hurried in to find all the boys lying breathless on the floor. Then, Paton Yewbeam came hurtling out of nowhere and landed right on top of her.

'Sorry dear,' he said, standing up and then pulling his fiancée to her feet.

'What happened?' Julia asked, her eyebrows raised and her expression full of intrigue.

'I honestly do not know. I think there must have been some kind of transportation device there. I walked though the doors of the academy and then I just fell out of some sort of hole and landed right here.' Tancred explained. Lysander thought about it logically and finally came up with an answer, 'A transporting portal, I think.'

'We're not going to be able to reach them until tomorrow, are we?' Charlie asked desperately. It was in everyone's mind, the answer simply was yes.

'We're going to have to devise a plan of action for tomorrow.' Gabriel stated simply.

But before this, making the first rational thought and decision she had since last night, Julia Ingledew suggested that all the boys went back to Thunder House to get dressed into their proper clothes and everyone completely agreed.

At Thunder House, Tancred was getting into a bit of a huff (as per usual). While he had silently agreed at the bookshop, along with everyone else, to leave the girls until tomorrow, he honestly didn't want to. He was now having a little scrape with the rest of the guys.

'Tancred, we know you don't want to wait until tomorrow,' Gabriel shouted, attempting to be heard over the loud howls of the gales around him (Tancred was in a mood, what do you expect from him? Sunshine and rainbows?), 'none of us like it that much either. But we're not going to be able to get into the academy until tomorrow when the portal had closed!'

From the kitchen, Lysander shouted,

'Tanc, calm down man. We'll get them out tomorrow. I miss Lauren as much as you miss Emma so chill it. Everyone misses them, not just you!'

This seemed to calm Tancred down – slightly.

'Guys,' Fidelio shouted, joining in the conversation, 'I don't think we're going to be able to get them out tomorrow or during the week…'

Tancred almost exploded with fury and Fidelio almost regretted opening his mouth to say anything.

'WHY?'

Fidelio almost got blown through a wall backwards when he made his last remark, but he carried on and finished by saying,

'Matron.'

'What the hell has that got to with it?' Tancred boomed and the house shook when it was hit by a large bolt of lightning.

'Well, Matron is always hanging around outside our dorm. It means me, Charlie and Gabe can't get out all night. She even sleeps outside our dormitory sometimes.' Fidelio gushed out. Even Tancred had to admit, he had a good point.

'And we can't do this by ourselves,' Lysander pointed out.

When all the boys were finally changed and finished arguing, and Tancred's father had had a few words about 'self-control', they all headed back to the Bookshop. Afterwards, Tancred stormed out of the house and rather red in the face. Everyone, save Tancred, grinned.

In Ingledew's Bookshop, everyone again sat in the book room and discussed a plan of action. Everyone was completely exhausted from two sleepless nights they had experienced. Lysander had accepted coffee, but everyone else had cocoa. They discussed where the girls would be, how they could get to them and how to get them out without being seen.

'I think they're in the academy, somewhere most likely in the West Wing. They're too important to go in any of the dungeons.' said Gabriel.

'Important?' Miss Ingledew asked. Lysander replied wisely,

'Important as in endowded, they wouldn't have split them up; it would take too much time and energy.' Charlie also added,

'If they're in the school, which is plainly obvious, and we can't get to them until the weekend, then we need a reason to get detention.' Fidelio added with a grimace, he hated detentions, but he was prepared to receive one for Robin.

Gabriel nodded and then, to much confusion, suggested,

'Solomon, we need Solomon.' Paton looked puzzled and asked, 'Solomon?'

Charlie explained, 'The blue boa. He lives with Mrs Kettle now, down Piminy Street.'

'Oh the boa, yes, that would be very helpful. I'll get Mrs Kettle to give him to Cook during the week.' Paton suggested.

'We've got two hours to walk around and explore until we have to go to bed,' Fidelio reminded them, 'and once we've found them, we'll just take them to cook who will look after them until the next morning and then we'll take them home.'

Tancred growled, 'And then we'll teach those damned Bloors a lesson. If they have harmed the girls in any way then there is no place for those Bloors on earth. If the girls have been hurt in any way then I will hunt them down and…'

They all knew Tancred was deadly serious, and Charlie said 'Ok then, we start the plan tomorrow.'

'Charles Timothy Bone, what do you look like?' Grandma Bone snapped demandingly. Charlie's hair was sticking out in all angles where he couldn't brush his hair properly without ripping chunks of her chocolately hair out.

'Awful, I couldn't find my hairbrush; I think I left it at Tancred's.' Charlie replied, bored.

He hurried down a bowl of cheerio's, grabbed his sapphire coloured cape, and rushed down Filbert Street to catch the blue music bus. Fidelio and Gabriel were already sat at the back of the bus and they beckoned to Charlie,

'Remember,' Gabriel hissed quietly as Charlie sat down, 'we have to look like we haven't noticed anything.'

'Noticed what?' Charlie asked cheekily, although the smile was hiding a large bout of sadness. Fidelio smiled and went back to his iPod.

_Bring bring. Bring bring. _'Yep, hello?' Tancred asked cautiously, flipping up the lid of his phone and answering it.

'Tancred Torsson, get a ruddy move on, the bus is here!' Lysander shouted down the phone. Tancred looked out the window and saw the green art bus outside Lysander's house.

'Damn,' he said audibly. He sped down the stairs, out the front door and ran to the bus. Tancred was running so fast that he accidentally crashed into the closed doors at the front, banging his head quite hard. He saw Lysander at the back of the bus, trying to conceal a large smirk and a laugh. The doors opened and Tancred stormed (literally) to the back of the bus, amid several gales of laughter, sat down and closed his mouth, forming a thin pink line.

'Tanc, don't be so serious,' Lysander remarked, grinning. Tancred glared at him,

'It's not that! It's just, I miss her Sander. Whenever the bus comes, I always see her, she always smiles at me. I really miss her and I need her back.' He whispered, his voice going high and tears glistening in his eyes, Lysander was astounded; he had never ever _ever _seen his best friend reduced to almost tears. He put his arm around him comfortingly and said,

'We will get her back Tanc. And all the others, that's a promise.' Tancred really couldn't help himself, but doubt this.

Art. Tancred was really really _really_ not looking forward to it. Emma was gone, and she sat next to him. He walked into the room, his cape billowing furiously and making a huge gust of wind to blow in everyone's faces. Lysander shook his head, but Tancred gave him a look that clearly said 'I can't help it'. Then, Tancred's ex, Tracey Morsell, entered the room. She smiled nastily at Tancred, almost laughing in his face. This enraged him so much that it started raining all over the classroom, causing freshly painted portraits to drip, and a huge, not yet complete, full-scale model of some random student to blow over and out of the door. Students jumped under the desk to protect their work and belongings. Mr Bovolda suddenly walked in and beckoned to Tancred.

'Can I speak to you outside Mr Torsson?' He asked calmly. Tancred stalked over and walked out of the room.

'Sir?' Tancred asked. Mr Bovolda grinned at him and began,

'I know where Emma, Olivia, Robin and the rest of them are. Don't ask me how I know, I'll tell you later.'

Tancred stood dumbstruck, 'Honestly Sir, how do you know?'

'The Bloors don't really speak that quietly, and as we actually are beneath the West Wing, I can hear them all the time. They were transported through some sort of portal made by a young girl by the name of Zara. She's living somewhere in the academy. They're stuck in a room called the Grey Room,' Mr B explained quickly.

'I'm going there now!' Tancred said firmly as he strode towards the stairs. Not to his surprise, Mr Bovolda called him back and said, an urgent tone in his voice,

'You can't go now. This escapade that you are planning needs _extreme_ work on it. You need the rest of the boys with you. You will need all of your powers,' Mr Bovolda paused for breath, 'and I will be gathering together some adults especially Mr Yewbeam, myself, Senor Alvaro. We will all be coming.'

Tancred grinned but then said, 'It could be dangerous Sir, but why Senor Alvaro?'

Mr Bovolda finished the conversation with a very strange remark, 'He's very good with a sword. Bring everyone with you, and meet me in the Art room.' And with that Mr Bovolda swept back into class.

At lunchtime, Tancred and the other guys made their way to the Art room. Gathered already there was Mr Bovolda, Senor Alvaro, even Paton Yewbeam and Julia Ingledew. Paton had risked daylight but in the Art room, all the lights were turned off (just in case). Cook had also skipped lunch in the canteen and brought up Solomon to the meeting. For a boa, Solomon was very intelligent, almost to the point where he could kind of understand the human language. Everyone gathered around the main table in the centre of the room and the discussion began. Dr Saltweather began,

'Okay, we're here to discuss what to do to find the five girls who have disappeared. Mr Bovolda knows where they are being kept. Eight of us are endowded, so we have weapons. We have a plan and each of us has information that we need to share.'

Charlie raised his hand and started the information sharing,

'I know where the Grey Room is, Tancred told me that's where the girls are. You know the painting of Donatella Bloor? You go right from there, up to the West Wing and outside the room where the old man lives and you go left through all these corridors and then a door materialises, but _only_ if you have permission from the Bloors,' he stopped and chuckled, 'which we certainly do not have.'

Gabriel then explained the plan of how they were going to rescue the girls,

'We're all going to get a detention this weekend, and then before we go to bed, we'll come and get Solomon from Cook and then we will all be invisible. We'll break into the room, make the girls invisible, take them to Cook, and then Cook will take them to Ingledew's sometime in around midnight.'

Everyone nodded in agreement and they discussed times and exact details until the hunting horn boomed out across the school.

The four members of staff and the five fifteen year olds left the room. When everyone was standing in the corridor, in a flurry of movement, Dr Saltweather suddenly boomed out impressively,

'What on Earth were you boys doing inside? You know that's not allowed! Detention for all of you, your parents will be rung and you will picked up on Saturday.'

The boys looked confused, and then realised what was going on. All the people in the corridor were staring and they all laughed at the boys' apparent embarrassment.


	8. The Beginning of Something Evil

The rest of the week passed so slowly that Tancred was sure life was almost on rewind. He was getting more and more paranoid by the minute. By Friday, he had even started gravitating towards the West Wing, although he got shouted at several times by a certain greasy haired youth, Manfred Bloor. In the King's Room every evening, there was an extremely uncomfortable and awkward silence. Olivia, Emma and now Robin _should_ have been there. This destroyed the balance, and made all of the 'good guys', especially Charlie feel really ill. But they didn't fight back against the evil smirks, they needed all the energy they could possibly hold for that evening.

Inside the Grey Room, all the girls were completely starved, looking totally worse for wear. The only good thing was that the Flames never left. They meowed and purred, keeping them conscious and keeping them safe. As the days passed them by, and they drifted in and out of clear mind, they all began to lose hope that they were going to be saved. They would be forgotten; no one would ever come to find them.

On Friday evening, when everybody had gone home, the five boys went to see cook for dinner. Everyone ate fast and heartily, they were all ecstatic for they were finally able to get the girls back. After dinner, the lads ran to the blue kitchen,

'Cook? Cook?' Charlie called out. He wondered where she was. Cook knew all the details, she knew the times why wasn't she here? Charlie thought frantically.

'Over here boys.' Cook called back from behind the stove. They hurried over to Cook who looked rather hilarious with Solomon sat on her head.

'Can we have him, we're going now.' Tancred exclaimed testily, reaching out for Solomon,

'Young man remember now, we have to wait a tad longer for that young artist chap, your uncle Paton, Senor Alvaro and Dr Saltweather. They'll be here in about ten minutes so until then you can help me in here.' Cook explained kindly.

'But we need to go NOW! They've been gone for a week!' Tancred shouted. Cook glared at him, handed him a wet mop and said,

'You're doing the mopping. Remember Mr Torsson, patience is a virtue.'

In the next ten minutes, Tancred had broken nearly every single piece of china in the blue kitchen of Bloors Academy. He couldn't help it though. When he was angry, he couldn't help but make a mess. When the adults finally arrived, Tancred grabbed the boa gently off Cook's head and put it on his own electrified mop. He looked so stupid that everyone burst out laughing.

'How are we going to tell Solomon to make us invisible? None of us can talk to animals, apart from Billy.' Lysander commented.

'Has anyone actually seen Billy this week?' Gabriel asked, concerned, 'we'd better go find him.'

Meanwhile, Zara and Billy were talking inside the music hall. Zara had been staying the West Wing for the past few weeks since she got here. Poor girl. They were just talking when Zara suddenly started screaming.

'Zara? Zara, what's wrong?' Billy cried out.

'Billy,' she began. Her eyes wide with fear and her voice beginning to hyperventilate, 'I don't want to worry you or anything, bu-but there's a r-r-rat on your pillow!' she screamed. He stood in front of her to stop her from running away and Billy exclaimed,

'Don't worry, he won't hurt you. I can talk to him.'

Zara asked Billy to say sorry to Rembrandt (the rat) for screaming. She stroked his black glossy fur gently. They sat in a silence until a distant voice shouted,

'Billy! Billy! Where are you?'

Billy rushed over to the door, Zara following in his wake.

'Yeah? I'm over here.' Billy called out. Tancred came striding up with Lysander and Charlie behind him. The others had decided to stay with Cook until the others came back with Billy. Tancred began,

'Hey Billy, we need you for a bit. We need you to talk to Solomon. And you are?' Tancred asked Zara. She seemed to overwhelmed to speak.

'This is Zara,' Billy introduced, 'she's from Dr. Loth's Academy in Wales. She makes portals.'

Looking at the reaction on Tancred's face, Billy realised he shouldn't have mentioned that. Tancred came storming up to Zara and said,

'You make portals? YOU DID THIS! You took Emma and everyone else! WE ARE RISKING OUR LIVES TO SAVE THEM BECAUSE OF YOU!'

Lysander and Charlie had seen Tancred angry before, but never like this. He was so furious that a huge tornado wind whipped through the air outside, all the windows smashed and some of the lighter carpets were blown off the floors.

'Come on Billy, she's evil. We need you, and she's just a stupid fool.' Tancred hissed violently, dragging Billy along via the elbow. Billy shot her an apologetic voice and went along with Tancred.

In the blue kitchen, Cook and Dr Saltweather were clearing up the pieces of china that Tancred had smashed earlier. The boa had made itself comfortable on Paton's head and had fallen asleep. When Tancred came storming in however, Solomon awoke and hissed angrily. When it saw Billy though, it slivered happily over to him and sat on his head and around his shoulders.

'Can you tell him to please make us all invisible?' Dr Saltweather asked kindly, putting a reassuring hand on the small albino boy's shoulder. He hissed to the blue boa, who, in no time wound its silvery-blue feathers around everyone, making them all invisible, apart from Billy and Cook.

'You had better make the boa become invisible as well,' a voice said. After another small hiss, the boa also became invisible. Tiny paces could be heard and finally the invisible people had left the blue kitchen.

Billy suddenly began to weep.

'Oh Billy, what's wrong?' Cook asked compassionately.

'I have this friend and she helped the Bloors with this whole situation. She trapped the girls but they threatened her but I'm not sure if she's telling the truth!' Cook put her arm around the small boys shoulders and whispered,

'Don't worry Billy, it'll be okay.'

In the West Wing of the Bloors Academy, the old and ancient Ezekiel Bloor was sat in his wheelchair in the middle of a very crowded what should be a living room. Arsonists, murderers and looters from Piminy Street were all gathered. Grandma Bone's clairvoyant sister, Eustacia Yewbeam had alerted the Bloors only hours before that someone was going to try and break the five girls free tonight. And they wouldn't let them do that. They hadn't finished with the little terrors just yet. They contacted everyone from Piminy Street to battle – to the death. Ezekiel Bloor wheeled himself into the centre of the room and screeched,

'Everyone! We will go to battle soon! My great grandson and I will leave first. If we cannot get rid of them, which I highly doubt we will struggle with, you will come and help us.' Everyone applauded and then Ezekiel and Manfred Bloor left the room.

'Do not worry grandfather, we will destroy them. We shall not fail.' He hissed murderously.


	9. War

Dr Saltweather, Senor Alvaro, Paton Yewbeam and Mr Bovolda led the group, with the lads following close behind. As they climbed the stairs of the West Wing, they all became aware of two figures at the top of the stairs. As they approached, an old cackling voice cried,

'Who goes there?'

The boa was so panicky, it accidentally transformed everyone back to their normal, visible state.

'So, Paton Yewbeam, I thought you might be behind all of this,' Ezekiel Bloor murmured.

'Don't try and fight Bloor, you can't win.' Paton commanded in a terrifyingly loud and commanding voice. Manfred Bloor, this time, laughing along with his great grandfather suddenly said,

'If you do anything out of place,' he eyed Senor Alvaro's sword cautiously, 'then this place goes up in flames,' he finished threateningly, showing them the Grey Room.

Tancred was so enraged that he strolled up to Manfred Bloor, who had the tiniest etchings of fear on his sullen face, and punched him full on in the mouth. Manfred staggering back, but accidentally placed on of his fire hands on the wall for support. It set alight almost immediately. The roof if it collapsed inwards and a sudden torrent of thunder struck the West Wing.

Ezekiel Bloor screamed, 'ATTACK!' Suddenly the stairs began to crumble beneath the inhabitants of Piminy Street's feet. They all managed to scramble to get to the bottom of the stairs, when, with a loud crash, the staircase fell through the floor into the corridor below, smashing up a music room and all the instruments inside it.

Fire blazed all around. Hurricane force gales swept through the West Wing. BANG! The room went flying off, landing in the huge garden next door. Tancred and the rest of the lads ran towards the Grey Room, careful not to get burnt. Curiously, out of the room came three bright yellow, orange, and red cats. Next came the shifting movement of five weary and almost ghost-like girls. Well, four girls and a giant hawk. The hawk flew across the place where all the fighting was going on and grabbed Amos Byrne, a deadly arsonist, by the head, clutched him in her large talons and dropped in off the edge of the building. Suddenly, Fidelio was knocked to the ground by a huge stone troll. More came knocking people askew. The whole school was ablaze by now.

Mrs Kettle suddenly appeared out of the huge fissures of rising smoke, with a large sword and went to help Senor Alvaro who was doing deadly duel with six burly men who all had tattoos up their arms and huge piercings all over their faces.

Paton Yewbeam had broken the majority of the stone trolls and Mr Bovolda had blown many up with his magic stones that were as hot as burning coals.

The rest was left to Dr Saltweather and the boys. Tancred was producing a huge thunderstorm and had already blown three people of the building. Lola, Lauren and Olivia were all hiding. Emma had turned herself into a Tollroc and was keeping an eye on the ancient old man to stop him from escaping from his little corner. Robin had turned into a giant spider and was crawling around, snapping her venomous pincers at everyone, who soon ran, didn't look and again, fell.

Manfred Bloor had managed to bring himself back up after being punched and was about to hypnotise Gabriel, who was already sinking into those cold black orbs, when he was struck by lightning. Gabriel sent a grateful nod towards Tancred and carried on.

Lysander had called up his spirit ancestors who trapped everyone who had fallen off the building. Ezekiel Bloor was still cackling madly until a stone troll nearly knocked him off the edge of the building. Half his army were dead or injured. A few had deserted him. Only six remained. Six against fifteen. The outcome for the Bloors wasn't looking great. All the trolls were gone (Eric left the moment things weren't going his way) and Manfred was hanging between life and almost certainly death. Suddenly, a murderer by the name of Otto Punk ran up and attacked Gabriel, trying to strangle him. Lola couldn't help it, she ran over and grabbed a sword out of one of the stone trolls remains and ran over to Gabriel.

'AHHH!' she screamed and sliced the man's left hand off.

Gabriel leaned over and kissed her on the forehead.

'Thank you' he gasped afterwards, grasping his broken wrist.

'Give up Bloor,' Paton Yewbeam shouted, 'the school has been half destroyed and we have the girls back.'

Suddenly Manfred Bloor, who had only just survived the lightning strike came up behind Paton with a huge chunk of stone and was about to smash it over his head when Zara O'Sheridan came running, a demented glint in her opal eyes, and pushed Manfred Bloor to the ground. He groaned and then fell silent, his head laying face down on the floor. Paton Yewbeam nodded his thanks. Finally, the battle came to a standstill; the good had triumphed over evil.

The whole of the West Wing had gone and the Music Assembly hall was ablaze. Luckily, when the firemen arrived, most of the people were gone. The only people who were still there were all the girls (looking rather dishevelled), the guys (looking a bit bruised), the adults and Manfred and Ezekiel Bloor. Zara had completely disappeared after her episode with Paton Yewbeam.

When everyone was out of the burning building, Tancred walked up to Emma, held her by the waist, looked deep into her crystal blue eyes and said,

'Don't you ever do that to me again.' She nodded, laughing, her eyes sparkling with tears. He leaned in and they came together in a tight embrace.

'Olivia!' Charlie shouted ecstatically. He ran over to her and swept her completely off her feet. He kissed her on the cheeks, hesitated and then, to stop her talking, on the lips. Robin ran over to Fidelio and jumped on his back gleefully. Lysander had gone over to Lauren and just hugged her, and he had not let go for a whole ten minutes.

Gabriel tried to find Lola in the grounds but she wasn't there. He sprinted back inside and up the crumbling marble staircase. And there, at the top of the building, where the West Wing _had_ been was a massive pile of bricks and wood and burning cinders. Gabriel started heaving the wood and bricks away. And lying on the floor, at the very bottom of a pile was a very broken and battered Lola.

'Gabriel,' she croaked. Turned out when one of the walls collapsed, she had been trapped underneath it. He picked her up carefully and carried her slowly down the stairs. She was smiling gently, although it was more of a grimace. Her face was covered in scratches and bruises and splinters. From the searing pain in her right ankle and knee, she guessed that they were most likely broken. Gabriel carried her very very _very_ carefully as not to do her anymore pain. If she got injured anymore at all, she might have died. Luckily, when he laid her down on the grass, waiting for an ambulance, the Flames visited her. Mr Bovolda, her form tutor was standing over her, an anxious expression on his young Italian face. Emma was silently crying.

Meanwhile, Zara sneaked to the back of the crowd. She had grown to like Lola (well, she'd never actually met her, but from what she had heard, she was perfectly lovely) and she was very worried about her. She just hoped that the yellow, angry boy wouldn't notice her.

When Cook and Billy had heard the flames and smelt the smoke crackling above, they had abandoned the kitchen and fled to the grounds. It was lucky they had. Along with the Music hall, the blue kitchen was also on fire. The fire brigade had tried hard to save the infrastructure, but now half of the school was just cinders. Cook was beside herself with sadness. All that she owned had been in that building, in her own private quarters: photo's of her parents and relatives, special important items, and her lucky necklace, a gift from her now dead grandmother.

While the Flames treated Lola, who was now recovering rather well, Tancred had seen Zara. He strode angrily over to her,

'Do you see what you've done?' he shouted, 'Lola might die and the whole Music Department had been destroyed! Everyone's injured and it's all your fault! If you hadn't had made that stupid freaking portal then none of this would've happened!'

Zara stood her ground though and retaliated,

'I only did what I did because they threatened my family,' her voice quivering with anger, 'I WOULD NOT have done that in ordinary circumstances!' her face was so rigid with truth and ferocity, Tancred actually believed her. None of them noticed Paton Yewbeam walking up to them. He tapped Zara on the back, making her jump.

'Sorry Miss O'Sheridan. I'd like to thank you for saving my life.' He bowed his head to her. She nodded her head nervously, her mouth hanging open with surprise.

'How's Lola?' she asked as Paton started to walk away. He smiled at her and said,

'Come and see.' Zara hurried after him and saw Lola a bit battered, but apart from that almost completely fine. Zara strode up to her,

'I'm so sorry, it's all my fault. You could've died and it would have been my fault. I'm so sorry.' She gushed out. Lola surprised her by saying,

'No, don't be sorry. If they were threatening my family I would've done the same thing. I think anyone of us would've done.' Zara nodded once more.

'Oh yes!' Paton exclaimed suddenly.

'What?' everyone asked together in perfect unison.

'I ought to ring Julia,' He smiled openly at Emma, 'she'll want to know the good news.'

Manfred Bloor was driven to the hospital (all the ambulance workers were very confused about the lightning strike, it was July and perfectly warm), whereas Lola was airlifted to hospital. Even though the Flames had helped, her injuries were still quite severe. Gabriel was only just allowed to go with her. Everyone waved goodbye and wished her luck. Ezekiel Bloor had been quite shaken up but was perfectly well. Just after the forces left, he wheeled himself over to the huge group of joy.

'You think you'll get away with this. You're wrong. One day you will pay for this!' he screeched angrily and menacingly. It certainly put a bit of damper on the celebrations, but everyone just ignored him. Someone _would_ pay and Charlie just hoped it wouldn't be him or his family. But this evening was not for distress anymore. It was an evening of celebration for the stolen girls who had been returned back home.


	10. A Happy Epilogue

_Right, I wrote this two years ago, so if it hasn't been up the standard of my most recent work, that's why. Thanks to the like, four people who have reviewed this. I've only put these chapters up so the story can be complete. Thanks for reading._

One month later…

Paton and Julia were married in a little church at the edge of the city. It was quite an event. Half-way through the ceremony, Grandma Bone decided to gate crash, but was chased out by the Flames. Another thing that had irritated Grandma Bone to the point of madness, Julia had decided to take the Yewbeam name.

The reception was rather funny as Paton kept smashing the light bulbs in the centre room, much to his supreme embarrassment. There were waiters everywhere, not only serving champagne, but all holding dustpan and brushes. Whenever a bulb smashed, the waiter closest to it would give out a loud exasperated sigh and doddle over and clear everything up. Everyone, except the Yewbeams, the Tilpins and the Bloors turned up. Even Alice Angel, who was moving towns, turned up. It was a very happy and joyful occasion.

Zara had managed to persuade her parents to move to the city. Martha and Jeremy O'Sheridan didn't like the idea, but Zara wanted to go back to Bloors Academy. She had never felt more accepted in her entire life. She moved to Filbert Street, number eleven and started dating Ben after a while. So life was good for her.

Billy was offered a place in the Gunn house, although he had politely declined. He feared that the people he wanted most to adopt him never would. But his wished were about to be answered. One weekend, he stayed round Charlie's house. Lyell and Amy Bone had come back from their honeymoon, and they had a little surprise for Billy. They called him into the kitchen after a very long discussion (Charlie included) and asked him,

'Would you like to come and live with us Billy?' Billy looked round at the Bones' happy smiling faces.

'For how long?' he stuttered, swaying happily in an invisible breeze.

Lyell Bone smiled graciously and replied, 'Forever.'

Soon after, the Bones' moved to Diamond Corner. Luckily, there were four bedrooms and enough room for everyone, Lyell and Amy, Charlie, Maisie, and Billy. Grandma Bone had moved out, much to everybody's delight.

Lola had to stay in hospital for a couple of days. She had broken a wrist, an ankle, a knee and a hell of a lot of bruises, but she recovered after a few weeks. She was also on crutches for six weeks and missed her entire English project because she couldn't write _anything_. Gabriel stayed with her all the time.

All the girls refused to say anything about what happened in the Grey Room. The Bloors had to close the school temporarily whilst the West Wing and the Music Department were re-built. This meant no one had to go to school for an extra two months on top of the summer holidays. Everybody wins.

_The End._


End file.
